On an annual salary of some £250,000 a year, Otto Rehhagel has pulled off a coaching masterstroke in taking Greece from international also-rans to Euro 2004 champions in just 36 months.

Sven-Goran Eriksson, however, has yet to take England past the quarter-finals of a tournament after just as long in the job - and he is paid up to £4m a year with a recent contract extension.

So how come the Greeks went home with the top prize while our boys didn't even make the semi-finals?

The Sports Gazette tries to find some answers to the questions being asked by England fans everywhere.

Q: So just what are the lessons which England, and Eriksson, should take from the past month?

A: Well, as Eriksson would say before pausing. Even if Eriksson's salary looks slightly ridiculous in comparison to Rehhagel's, the German has proved the overwhelming importance of a quality national team coach.

No-one else can take more credit than him for Greece's recent odyssey.

If the Football Association can find a better manager than Eriksson, then they should employ him.

Failing that, and there is no obvious candidate - at least an English one, anyway - then we must continue to trust in Eriksson and hang the cost, at least until after the 2006 World Cup.

Q: But surely we should be employing someone like Rehhagel? George Graham, for instance? How about another German - Berti Vogts?

A: Can you imagine the furore if England started playing like Greece? Exactly.

England are not only supposed to win, but to do so in style.

It is the albatross around our necks, the same one carried by Spurs and look where it's taken them.

Maybe, above all, England need to learn to 'win ugly'.

Rehhagel is German, after all, and it hasn't done them any harm - although just look at Scotland.

Q: But haven't we got a better team than Greece, for goodness sake?

A: On paper, yes.

But as the old joke goes, on grass, it would seem not.

England should have all the constituent parts of a tournament-winning side but this is not the first time that we have failed to perform when it matters most.

We remain hopeless at penalties, but whereas some critics have lambasted Eriksson for being too defensive against Portugal, maybe we were actually too attacking in our midfield - at least if Greece are anything to go by.

Eriksson may have to choose between Paul Scholes and Frank Lampard, even if the likes of Owen Hargreaves - the holding player that every other country has - is not the same ball-player.

Maybe then we wouldn't be so tired at the end of games.

Q: So what hope is there, especially without a change in manager?

A: The return from suspension of Rio Ferdinand will be especially welcome but the real hope is Wayne Rooney.

It is rather ridiculous to heap so many expectations on the shoulders of one 18-year-old, but Diego Maradona managed to pull Argentina along in his wake.

Eriksson also has a very young squad who can, surely, only get better. At least they have a World Cup qualifying group which, Wales apart, is not as hard as it could have been.

Q: But surely there must be something - anything - else we can do?

A: We must start by reducing the size of the Premiership to 18 teams.

That is blindingly obvious, while the League Cup must be reconfigured in some way as, despite being a great achievement to win and its importance to lower league teams, it is another sap on leading players.

International friendlies must also be looked at, although it is hard to see how Eriksson is supposed to prepare without them.

In short, we play far too much football. We need quality not quantity.

Otherwise, stop panicking - the new season starts in four weeks' time, after all.